Carnitas

Mouth-watering, tender, shredded pork, paired with creamy avocado slices, fresh cilantro, and a squeeze of lime, all wrapped in a hot flour tortilla, eating carnitas is not merely sustenance but an experience. By far one of our favorite meals in this house. We aim to enjoy it every week.

Recipe

Makes 4 generous portions

Ingredients:

Ingredients for braising:

4-5 pounds of pork butt, cut into 3-4 inch chunks

1 can of beer

3 bay leaves

zest of one line

6 large cloves of garlic roughly chopped

1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients to fry the meat:

one large onion chopped

Lawry’s garlic salt

juice of one lime

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

fat skimmed from broth

Ingredients to serve with:

warm flour tortillas

2 sliced avocados

2 limes sliced

Cholula green sauce

fresh cilantro with stems removed (or lettuce if you are one of those crazy people who think cilantro tastes like soap)

sour cream (optional)

queso fresco (optional)

salt to taste

Directions:

The first step is to braise the pork butt. This can be done in a slow cooker, a pot on the stove, or in a pressure cooker like the Instant Pot. If you are slow-cooking cook on high for about 6 hours. On the stove, you want to simmer the ingredients for at least four hours. In a pressure cooker, you will want to pressure cook 15 minutes for every pound of meat.

Add all the braising ingredients to your pot and cook the time needed for your method. The meat is done when it shreds easily.

When the meat is finished cooking take it out of the broth (reserve the broth) and shred the meat.

Sprinkle with Lawry’s garlic salt, lime juice, and peppers.

From the broth, skim off about two tablespoons of fat and place in saute pan. Save the rest of the broth to make Carnita Soup.

Heat pan to medium-high heat and then add the meat and chopped onion. Sautee until the onion is soft.

To make your carnita, put a few ounces of carnita meat on a hot tortilla, a couple slices of avocado, a heap of cilantro, the juice of a slice of lime, some green sauce, and any of the other optional ingredients. Take a bite and enjoy your trip to mouth nirvana.